


Impossible Unicorns

by Runic



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 8.17 spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-21
Updated: 2013-03-21
Packaged: 2017-12-06 00:29:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/729610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runic/pseuds/Runic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas kept seeing familiar faces that really were not all that familiar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impossible Unicorns

**Author's Note:**

> My gift for Nika, who cried with me while I liveblogged last night’s episode in her inbox.

Cas liked watching the people as they came onto the bus. Every single one was a new face, a person with their own life, their own sets of worries and loves. Humans were simply fascinating in the way they could go around with these huge lives and only ever rarely be aware that seven billion other people on the planet carried the same gift.

A mother and daughter sat behind him at one point. They argued for an hour, neither hearing what the other was saying. Cas listened to both, and determined that the solution was simple if they both would be a little more willing to listen to one another. He would have said so, it was just that when he looked back, the daughter now staring out the window and the mother glaring down into a book, he was reminded of another mother and her daughter. So he turned around and kept his thoughts to himself. Perhaps it was fear, or maybe it was just old memories that haunted him.

A ridiculously tall boy entered the bus at the next stop, and for a moment Cas feared the Winchesters had tracked him down. But the boy was too young, his hair too short. He had yet to figure out how to efficiently maneuver all of him at once. The boy sat two rows in front of Cas, headphones in and music turned up. He pulled out a thick book from his bag, a history on the Roman Empire Cas caught before it was flipped open to a section very near the end. Perhaps this boy would go to college, graduate, and have a family. Perhaps this boy would be able to fulfill his dreams, and the dreams of his counterpart.

There was a man cursing as he went through his bag when Cas got off the bus. He wore a baseball cap and a plaid shirt. He opened his mouth and Cas fully expected to hear the angry shout of “Balls!” but what came out instead was “Cocksucker!” Close, but it broke the illusion. Still grumbling the man pushed past Cas and onto the bus, heading for his own far flung destination.

Cas walked for a bit, enjoying the sun. The weather was warm, but not hot, and it felt good to walk outside without much purpose. He had not walked very far, at least in his estimation, before he came to a diner. Before he would not have needed sustenance, but now…now he could feel the slight ache in his stomach that would soon demand his full attention.

“You hungry?” a young man asked when he walked out of the diner and spotted Cas.

“Uh…” came the intelligent response. The man wore a denim jacket and pleasing smile, the kind that was both dorky and charming. His light brown hair was cut short, but his face was wrong somehow. It took Cas a moment, but he realized it was because it wasn’t _his_ face.

“Come on, I’ll buy you a burger. You look like you could use it.”

Cas did like burgers. By the time he had wandered into the diner, filled with outdated 50s merchandise, the man was already at the counter. “Your finest bacon cheeseburger for me friend here! Wait, you’re not allergic to anything are you?”

Cas stared at the man for a moment. The man, the waitress, and the cook, all stared back. “No.”

“Well all right then!” the man continued. “That’s Betty,” he said, pointing to the waitress. “She’ll take care of you. She’s the best so you’ve got nothing to worry about. Sorry I can’t stick around, but I need to go pick up my kid from soccer.”

Cas waited another moment before answering again. “Okay.”

So the man with the charming smile and child who played at soccer left, leaving Cas alone with a free meal. “You like anything to drink, dear?” the waitress asked.

“Uh, just water please.” Now that he had been made aware of it his throat did seem rather dry.

Cas watched as the waitress, Betty, went behind the counter to get his drink, laughing at something the cook said. The cook himself reminded Cas of a certain cuddly vampire, but this cook talked with a Montreal accent, not a Louisiana one. And the waitress, the waitress had familiar wavy black hair. Her body was shaped the same, she moved in the same manner, even her voice sounded the same, but her eyes broke the illusion. Her eyes were too kind.

“Hello, Clarence.” Cas’ head snapped up at that, breath momentarily stolen. But Betty had simply been greeting another costumer who sat himself at the bar.

She smiled pleasantly, brought Cas his burger, which was delicious, and came back every so often to ask if he needed anything. The young man had been right, she did take care of him. Cas found he didn’t mind being taken care of all that much, it was rather enjoyable to have someone care for him. For a time it made him not feel alone. Maybe that was why he kept seeing so many familiar faces. But that was what he was; that was what he had been ever since he pulled Dean from Hell.

Someone walked up to the booth he sat at, someone who was not Betty. The shoes were wrong. Whoever it was slid into the seat across from him. Cas thought this strange. Hadn’t Dean said something about that being against the social norm before?

“Hello, Castiel.”

Cas looked up from his burger and saw God.


End file.
